Gunning with 'Slow-gun'

If cricket in India is a religion then politics is not less than a prayer with slogans as a chant of piety.

However, in recent times we have witnessed these chants, which are used to galvanize the cadre have often raked up huge controversies.

The BJP’s recent attempt to plagiarise the Shaivite chant of ‘Har Har Mahadev’ to coin the ‘Har Har Modi’ and then changing it to ‘Har ghar Modi’ saw huge criticism with detractors even tweaking the slogan against the BJP strong man to ‘Darr Darr Modi’ and ‘Thar Thar Modi’.

Some slogans we know have produced results in the past.

The famous slogan of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in early nineties ‘Tilak, taraju aur talwar ; inko maaro joote chaar’ brought it attention and there after ‘Haathi nahi ganesh hai, Brahma Vishnu Mahesh hai’ and ‘Sarv jan hitay; sarvjan sukhaya’ helped the party gain a complete majority in 2007 UP assembly elections.

The BJP slogan of ‘Ab Ki Baar, Modi Sarkar’ which is picked from ‘Ab ki bari Atal Bihari’ is seen as an attempt to get back the lucky charm of Vajpayee.

The Congress party is also not far behind in reframing the old lucky slogan ‘Congress ka haat aam admi key saath’ to ‘Har Haat Shakti, Har Haath Tarakki’.

Today slogans no more remain a catchy political jingle for entertainment but a tool to connect to the masses. Slogans have even emerged as a catalyst to understand the popular mood in the country.

It was ‘Sheila Dixit wapas jao’ slogan that set the agenda against once popular three time chief minister of Delhi during the protest of brutal gang rape in Delhi. Sheila Dixit had to go packing her bags after the humiliating defeat in the elections thereafter.

May be this is the reason why the political parties do not relent and answer back in slogan against a slogan these days. The Aam Admi Party (AAP) slogan in Varanasi ‘Abhi to Sheila hari hai ab Modi ki bari hai’ was instantly replied with ‘Jo lad na saka apni khasi se vo kya larega Kashi se’.

Aam Aadmi’s Khaas aspirations may boomerang

Not many years ago, a ‘giant killer’ of its kind in information technology (IT), the infamous B. Ramalinga Raju—the founder of Satyam Computers (now Tech Mahindra)—in his last communiqué to then Board members had said, “It was like riding a tiger not knowing how to get off without being eaten.” It was as a confession of his ambitious virtues that marked the fall of one of the biggest IT giants unearthing one of the gravest corporate frauds in the country.
Raju was riding the IT wave high and became the pioneer of outsourcing but had to step down after admitting to faking financial figures of the company to the tune of Rs7,136 crore of non-existent cash and bank balance.
The recent rise of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal at times reminds of a similar stellar rise—he is riding a wave of aspirations of millions of Indians with his way of politics suddenly becoming a ‘route’ to bring change. The urge is monumental. However, how far this would last is another question.
AAP’s big promises during the Delhi elections are being pushed through quickly keeping in mind the due date of the general elections. Populist measures like the water subsidy will impact the exchequer, which will finally hit the taxpayer’s belly. Is this not the same method used by the other political parties in power? Besides, his alliance with the Congress was akin to what other political parties do to the electorate after winning elections.

Kejriwal’s idea of governance is appealing and his style dynamic. His rise as a politician is spectacular. But his over-ambitious moves reminds of Raju’s fatal tiger ride without being aware of being gobbled up—though one thing is for sure that Delhi’s Khaas AAdmi has rewritten the rules of the game.

 

Match-fixing scandal gives respite to scam-hit UPA

The scam-hit UPA gets some space to breathe easy as the cricket scandal takes focus away from the recent corruption charges.
In a nation where questions in Parliament and top government jobs can be fixed it does not come as a surprise that a ball or two in the game of cricket is also on sale.
The recent fixing allegations have led to a lot of hullabaloo giving an opportunity to a few foes (politicians) to unite, while granting the ruling coalition some space to breathe easy (to take focus away from recent corruption charges).
Not surprising is the swiftness the government has shown to fix the fixing case before another scam rolls out from the UPA closet and takes center-stage.
Taking a proactive line it has even indicated that it would table a Bill against fixing in the coming monsoon session of Parliament.
But, surprisingly all this does not seem to matter so much to the game lovers.
What does this mean? Are there no moral or ethical values left among people of this country or is it that in a country infamous for corruption people have come to live with such malpractices?
Politicians suddenly seem over-sincere about restoring credibility in the game of cricket.
Unfortunately, such sincerity was nowhere on display while Railgate or the infamous Coalgate rocked Parliament recently.
It may be true that recent events have hurt the image of the game, but it is truer that what we get to see in the political domain is far worse.
It took the use of water cannon and tear gas shells against Delhi rape protesters for the government to gauge public mood.
Somewhat similar was the case during the Lokpal protests.
While the concern of our politicians for the gentleman's game is understandable, they would do well to focus on something closer home: the total disconnect between the elected government and its electorate and the rampant corruption which has marred every aspect of the state's functioning.